Untitled. From the series "Natural Wonder" 1993, printed 2011. Pigment print.
"I consider myself a storyteller, and I take pictures to tell that story"
DOB: 26th September 1962.
Born in Brooklyn, New York.
BA in Photography 1985 (Purchase College NY).
MFA Photography 1988 (Yale School of Art).
A visit to New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) When he was 10, alighted his interest in photography.
As a teenager, he belonged to a punk-rock group called The Speedies. Their song,"Let Me Take Your Photo", was used by Hewlett Packard in 2005 for an advertising campaign to promote their digital camera.
In his early 20's, Crewdson decided to sign up to an introduction to photography course ran by Laurie Simmons, an American photographer who belonged to a group of artists named The Pictures Generation, significant in the 1970's.
Once he graduated, he gained his Masters at Yale, where he is now a professor and Director of Graduate Studies in Photography.
His images hold a silent, psychological feel to them. The viewer finds themselves waiting for the characters to move, to show the next instalment. What is going on? Who are they? What is going to happen next...
He has his audience building their own story around an image. Everyone interprets each one differently, depending on their life experiences, world view.
Each image could be picked apart ad infinitum, more often leading to more questions than answers.
He has his audience building their own story around an image. Everyone interprets each one differently, depending on their life experiences, world view.
Each image could be picked apart ad infinitum, more often leading to more questions than answers.
They are generally set in suburbia, Crewsdon likes to create his scenes in areas close to his home in Massachusetts.
"Certain artists have certain areas, or a place they respond to, that they like to work and that's the case with me"
His local community have a great deal of respect for him, with the Police and Fire Department having to get involved occasionally. His image "Brief Encounter" had to have the main street closed so more snow could build up, irrelevant signs had to be removed to hide identifiers, and the street lights were switched off.
With the image below, he wanted to contradict the friendly connections of neighbours. To do this, he had his assistant ring the police to say that the road was blocked, when a neighbour had placed turf across the road to join two gardens.
"Certain artists have certain areas, or a place they respond to, that they like to work and that's the case with me"
His local community have a great deal of respect for him, with the Police and Fire Department having to get involved occasionally. His image "Brief Encounter" had to have the main street closed so more snow could build up, irrelevant signs had to be removed to hide identifiers, and the street lights were switched off.
With the image below, he wanted to contradict the friendly connections of neighbours. To do this, he had his assistant ring the police to say that the road was blocked, when a neighbour had placed turf across the road to join two gardens.
He auditions local people to play the characters in his pictures, choosing by his perception what they have going on internally. Sadness? Desire? Anxiety?
Up until "Beneath the Roses", he used a large format camera. It made his images highly detailed, but was bulky to transport.
Now he uses digital cameras for ease of use, though all the equipment together can still weigh 2 kilograms.
He can have a huge crew, Hollywoodesque lighting, take months to prepare, all for one image.
Now he uses digital cameras for ease of use, though all the equipment together can still weigh 2 kilograms.
He can have a huge crew, Hollywoodesque lighting, take months to prepare, all for one image.
He is inspired Edward Hopper (American Realist painter), William Eggleston (American Fine Art photographer), Diane Arbus (American photographer), Walker Evans (American photojournalist), and many others.
His most known works include:
Natural Wonder (1992-97).
Twilight (1998-2002).
Dream House (2002).
Beneath the Roses (2003-08), which took nearly a decade to create, and had nearly 100 people as crew,
Sanctuary (2009), His first to be done outside of the USA. He used an ordinary digital camera and was more documentary in style.
Cathedral of the Pines (2013-14).
An Eclipse of Moths (2018-2019).
He has exhibited extensively in the USA and Europe - Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven( 1988), Galleri Charlotte Lund, Stockholm, Sweden (1995), The Rudofinium Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic (2008), The Gagosian Gallery, New York (2016), (who represent him), The Photographers' Gallery, London (2017), The Becket Pictures, FRAC Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France (2017), to name a few.
His most known works include:
Natural Wonder (1992-97).
Twilight (1998-2002).
Dream House (2002).
Beneath the Roses (2003-08), which took nearly a decade to create, and had nearly 100 people as crew,
Sanctuary (2009), His first to be done outside of the USA. He used an ordinary digital camera and was more documentary in style.
Cathedral of the Pines (2013-14).
An Eclipse of Moths (2018-2019).
He has exhibited extensively in the USA and Europe - Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven( 1988), Galleri Charlotte Lund, Stockholm, Sweden (1995), The Rudofinium Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic (2008), The Gagosian Gallery, New York (2016), (who represent him), The Photographers' Gallery, London (2017), The Becket Pictures, FRAC Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France (2017), to name a few.
He has recieved awards - The Skowhegan medal for Photogrpahy (2004), A National Endowment for the Arts Visual Artists Fellowship, and The Aaron Siskind Foundation Fellowship.
Crewdson’s work is permanently in many collections - the Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Brooklyn Museum, Los Angeles County Museum, and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Travelling exhibitions of his work have been shown across Europe. "In a Lonely Place" was exhibited in 2013 at the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane; City Gallery Wellington, and Dunedin Art Gallery, Dunedin, and the Centre for Contemporary Photography in Melbourne. It had been shown previously from 2005 to 2008 in Kulturhuset, Stockholm, The Black Diamond in Copenhagen, and the Stenersen Museum in Oslo.
Crewdson has had published several books including Hover (Artspace Books), Dream of Life (University of Salamanca, Spain), Twilight (Harry N. Abrams), Beneath the Roses (Harry N. Abrams), Gregory Crewdson from 1985 to 2005 (Hatje Cantz), Sanctuary (Harry N. Abrams), and Gregory Crewdson, a Catalogue Raisonné (Rizzoli) (2013).
Crewdson’s work is permanently in many collections - the Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Brooklyn Museum, Los Angeles County Museum, and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Travelling exhibitions of his work have been shown across Europe. "In a Lonely Place" was exhibited in 2013 at the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane; City Gallery Wellington, and Dunedin Art Gallery, Dunedin, and the Centre for Contemporary Photography in Melbourne. It had been shown previously from 2005 to 2008 in Kulturhuset, Stockholm, The Black Diamond in Copenhagen, and the Stenersen Museum in Oslo.
Crewdson has had published several books including Hover (Artspace Books), Dream of Life (University of Salamanca, Spain), Twilight (Harry N. Abrams), Beneath the Roses (Harry N. Abrams), Gregory Crewdson from 1985 to 2005 (Hatje Cantz), Sanctuary (Harry N. Abrams), and Gregory Crewdson, a Catalogue Raisonné (Rizzoli) (2013).
The first image published above, from his "Natural Wonder" series, portrays several types of birds, from garden varieties to birds of prey, encircling a circle of neatly spaced and placed speckled eggs. Did the birds place the eggs there? Are they guarding them, or just casually standing by? behind them is the picture of American small town life, neat little wooden clad houses, in neat gardens. I bet they aren't aware of the birdy pow-wow going on behind them. I prefer this one out of the two images here, it has a playful, fun element to it.
The second image from his "Hover" series, shows a suburban street. There are people milling around, watching as the police arrive to investigate. In the middle of the road, turf has been laid from one side to another, linking two gardens together. There's a man laying it, his van parked close by. It's a strange image, from the question of why is the turf there in the first place? To why are the police there? It bothers me that Crewsdon wasted police time just for a photograph, so I'm not sure if I like it. I do like how his images cause so many questions though, and I do prefer his colour over black and white, it gives the images warmth.
The second image from his "Hover" series, shows a suburban street. There are people milling around, watching as the police arrive to investigate. In the middle of the road, turf has been laid from one side to another, linking two gardens together. There's a man laying it, his van parked close by. It's a strange image, from the question of why is the turf there in the first place? To why are the police there? It bothers me that Crewsdon wasted police time just for a photograph, so I'm not sure if I like it. I do like how his images cause so many questions though, and I do prefer his colour over black and white, it gives the images warmth.